Building Resilience in Island Communities
17-18 September 2010, Shetland Museum & Archives, Lerwick, Shetland Islands
An innovative and international conference presenting ideas on dealing with the challenge of future-proofing our dwellings, infrastructure and communities. There will be a particular focus on remote and island communities in the northern latitudes. An RIAS international architecture design competition will also be launched at the conference.
A full list of speakers and presentations can be found below.
The £175 price includes: Two day conference, civic reception (Thursday evening), Shetland deluxe buffet dinner (Friday evening) and Shetland architectural tours led by Shetland Architectural Society members.
BOOK NOW by phoning Carol Duncan at Shetland Arts on 01595 743843 or email carol.duncan@shetlandarts.org
Combine architecture and world class music! The Shetland Guitar Festival (More info) runs from 17th-20th September.
In addition to the conference there will be two public talks by Hugh Broughton (Antartica and the South Shetlands) Saturday 18th September at 6.30pm and Dominic Cole (Eden Project and Lost Gardens of Heligan) Friday 17th September 2010 at 7.30pm.
Tickets are £5 and are available from Shetland Box Office on 01595 745555.
Click HERE for further information about the Shetland Islands, including travel and accommodation.
Please note: all tickets are non-refundable.
SPEAKERS AND PRESENTATIONS
Chris Butters
Founder, GAIA Architecture group of Norway / GAIA International
Sustainable architecture and planning: state of the art and challenges
Chris has worked with architecture, energy and ecology for over 30 years, both as a practicing architect and as consultant, researcher, author and lecturer. He has a broad knowledge of energy issues and sustainable design internationally, best practice, and of policy questions related to sustainability.
His first theme will be to give a broad overview of the state of the art - the really cutting edge projects - in sustainable architecture and planning. His framework will be primarily, though not exclusively, that of Europe and colder climates such as Scandinavia. Through these examples he will raise some questions both about present trends, and future challenges.
His second theme will be to place sustainability within a holistic framework by describing the Sustainability Value Map used in several different countries worldwide. His third theme will be to attempt to address some particular challenges, and opportunities, of island communities, by presenting a couple of examples which, though differing in many ways from the Shetland islands, can also provide inspiration.
www.butters.no
Hugh Broughton
Director, Hugh Broughton Architects, London
Hugh Broughton is the founder of Hugh Broughton Architects, who are one of the established talents of contemporary British architecture with a portfolio of exciting and elegant designs spanning the cultural, science and business sectors.
In 2005, working with Aecom, the practice won the international RIBA competition for the design of a new British research station in Antarctica, Halley VI. This extraordinary project responds to awesome environmental challenges to create the first fully relocatable research base in the world. Hugh’s work for the British Antarctic Survey has led to other commissions in Antarctica, most notably winning the international competition to design an Antarctic research station for Spain in the South Shetland Islands.
Hugh’s presentation will review the design of the two Antarctic research stations with particular attention to human factors, the environmental approach and the technical solutions to achieving self-sufficiency over many isolated months.
The presentation will conclude by examining the ways in which the technologies and design principles employed in Antarctica can have relevance in other remote locations, helping to ensure environmentally responsible and resilient development for generations to come.
www.hbarchitects.co.uk
Dominic Cole
Principal Landscape Architect, Landuse Consultants. Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London
Island Stories: Models of Sustainability
A Principal of Land Use Consultants since 1992 Dominic is a Landscape Architect with over 25 year’s experience with particular skills in Landscape Design; Master Planning; Heritage; Public Realm; Project and Contract Management.
Dominic was lead landscape architect for the Eden Project in Cornwall (web link) responsible for the site Master Plan, vehicle and pedestrian access and circulation, design of the landform, structure planting (inside and out) and a member of the interpretation team. Dominic was landscape consultant for the ‘Lost Gardens of Heligan’ also in Cornwall. Dominic will look at Islands from around the UK, Europe and the USA that he has visited and explore their qualities that influence his work. From the Industrialised Canvey Island in the Thames Estuary to Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel, each have stories to tell. They have the big skies, birds and constant presence of the sea but are very different in character. Both support communities but in completely opposite circumstance , Lundy as a holiday playground & Canvey as a down-at-heel gritty working class dormitory.
He will bring illustrations and stories that celebrate the sheer diversity of islands and people who occupy them and explore what they can tell us about their future sustainability.
www.landuse.co.uk
Andrew Leiper
Max Fordham LLP, Cambridge/ Edinburgh
Building Fabric and simulation to minimise the need for additional servicing and to maximise energy efficiency.
Andrew will present Max Fordham LLP’s approach to minimising the need for active environmental servicing using artificial lighting, heating, cooling and mechanical ventilation within new and refurbished buildings. Reduced energy consumption increases a building’s resilience to external factors such as fuel prices and fuel availability. It also reduces a building’s CO2 emissions and its contribution to global warming.
Fuel security and fuel costs are becoming as important as global warming for many clients, especially within island communities and methods of reducing energy consumption should be at the forefront of the minds of Architects and their design teams.
This approach when applied to developments within island communities can reduce their dependence on grid supplied energy and improve their resilience to external factors. If we design buildings which need little energy to start with then the remaining energy needed can be more easily met using renewable sources or stored energy,
www.maxfordham.com
Chris Morgan
Certified Passivhaus Designer, Locate Architects
Passivhaus Buildings and Post-Oil Energy Resilience
Passivhaus buildings are designed to be so well insulated that they need almost no energy to keep occupants warm and comfortable. Through careful, detailing, high quality components, stringent air tightness and heat recovery ventilation, amongst other things, passivhaus buildings maintain comfortable levels without central heating, and with approximately a tenth of the energy input of a normal building.
This presentation, delivered by an experienced, Scottish-based Passivhaus Designer will explain the principles, expunge some myths and comment on some of the implications – good and bad – of working to such exacting standards, particularly in challenging climates.
www.locatearchitects.co.uk
Roots Design Workshop
Tiree and Glasgow
Island Stories: Models from Tiree
Roots Design Workshop are a new practice which offer an integrated service combining architectural design with energy efficiency and renewable energy advice in an accessible way which meets the demands of the 21sdt century. Roots Design are based in the island of Tiree and in Glasgow.
Over the next year Roots intend to establish Archivan ™ - a mobile office that will allow the practice to visit an increased number of rural communities to host a continuing series of design surgeries. Roots Design Workshop’s presentation will include the following points:
The challenges and rewards of making the transition from University to Professional Practice, The challenges and rewards of working closely with the community on the Isle of Tiree as ‘Architects in Residence’, Roots’ experience of taking the model of community consultation developed on Tiree to other rural communities, Roots’ integrated service and advice regarding combining architectural + environmental design and examples of Roots’ live projects which examine how to design contemporary, energy-efficient interpretations of vernacular buildings.
www.rootsdesignworkshop.com
Árni Winther
Architect, Árni Winther Arkitektar, Faroe Islands
Island Stories: The Faroe Islands
Árni Winther has run a private architectural practice in Torshavn, Faroe Islands for thirty years. His projects have included buildings for administration, healthcare, education, transport, culture, religion and commerce. His studio also covers interior, furniture and landscape design. He was born in Torshavn and graduated in architecture from the Royal academy of the Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark in 1975.
Árni will discuss the issues and challenges of architectural practice in an island setting as well as considering the similarities and differences between Shetland and their neighbouring island group, Faroe.
www.awinther.fo
Brian Wilkinson
Interpretation Officer, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland
A Study of Turf
Brian Wilkinson is the Interpretation Officer for the Scotland's Rural Past project at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. An Archaeologist and former Education Officer with National Museums Scotland at the National Museum of Rural Life.
He now works with schools across Scotland on projects to investigate abandoned farming townships and raise awareness of medieval or later rural settlements. He has a particular interest in the tradition of building with turf across the North Atlantic zone.
Evidence suggests that buildings constructed with turf were commonplace throughout rural Scotland until the modern period. While there are few standing examples remaining in Scotland, our northern neighbour Iceland has many preserved structures which bear witness to the resilience of a millennium-old building tradition.
This presentation will use examples from the archaeological and historical record to investigate the properties of turf buildings in Northern Europe and further afield and show how their design and materials adapted to change and were integrated into a sustainable, rural way of life. He will also speak about contemporary applications for turf roofing.
www.rcahms.gov.uk |
